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Media/News > Latest News on the Drugs Bill The Drugs Bill passed through the Lords and has been enacted by the government during the 'wash up' session of parliament on April 4th. See below for more details. Drugs Bill 2005 information page
LATEST: 07.04.05 Drugs Bill passes through Lords in the 'Wash up' and will be ENACTED! Transform are saddened to report that the Drugs Bill has passed through the final stages of its House of Lords scrutiny and was enacted just before Parliament was dissolved for the General Election. Only minor amendments were requested, which the Government haven't objected to. The final stages of the Bill's scrutiny have been shockingly inadequate. The second reading debate in the Lords was announced late and was generally not expected to take place as it was timetabled for the evening of April 4th - the day of the expected General Election announcement. The Pope's death, however, delayed this announcement by a day, enabling the debate to take place and for the Bill to continue to committee stage and its third reading. As a result many of the NGO briefings - outlining objections to the Bill - were not circulated to Peers. Following the announcement of the General Election all outstanding bills are given the remainder of the week to be decided upon. They will either be enacted or will fall - and have to be re-introduced in the next parliament, assuming, as most commentators do, that Labour win the election. This so called 'wash up' week is the scene of many backroom deals, one of which was struck between the three major parties over the Drugs Bill. Whilst there was considerable objections to the Bill from the opposition (the Conservatives that it was to soft, and the Lib Dems that it was too harsh) and many individual MPs and Peers, none of the parties objected to the Bill, arguably because they did not want to pick a fight on the highly sensitive and contentious drugs issue in the run up to the election. We assume that other Bills will not pass as result of this back room horse trading. The committee stage of the Bill and its third and final Lords reading were squeezed together in the overcrowded 'wash up' week agenda (the Bill was never actually scrutinised in committee). A number of Peers, including Lord Rae, and Lord Mancroft indicated their strong objections to the undue haste in which the Bill was being pushed through the Lords without due scrutiny. This was not, it was noted, an urgent piece legislation and should be reintroduced in the Autumn to allow proper scrutiny in committee and debate. Lords Mancroft (con) and Cobbold (cross bench) tabled a number of amendments all but one of which were ultimately withdrawn. Only the amendment to withdraw the clause concerning magic mushrooms was put to a vote, on which it was roundly defeated (remember that the party whips would have instructed peers how to vote as a result of the deal that had been struck with the Government). So despite the valiant attempts by Transform, Justice, Liberty , Release, DrugScope, Turning Point, the Law Society, and numerous parliamentarians, to highlight the serious problems (legal, practical and ethical) with the Bill, it has been rushed through the Lords and will shortly be enacted - without having had the detailed scrutiny in the Lords that it clearly warrants. The various clauses in the Bill were subject to commencement orders and many of them will have consultations on how they will function in practice. Some of the clauses may never come into law, and there is considerable scope remaining to ensure that some of the clauses are modified or repealed - as has happened with the reforms to Section 8 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (see the Transform Drugs Bill briefing for details). Text of the Lords debate are linked below.
Transform and Release issue a joint statement on objections to the Drugs Bill Read the statement here (pdf document)
Transform Drug Bill briefing - UPDATED 14.03.05 Transform has published a response to the Drugs Bill 2005. To view or download it as a pdf. file click here: Transform response to the Drugs Bill 2005 (updated 14.03.05) (pdf) This briefing contains a detailed clause by clause analysis of the Bill. For more information please contact Transform on 0117 941 5810. The briefing was used by a number of MPs in the Commons debate on the Bill,(18.01.05) and was referenced on 17 occassions by MPs and the Home Office Minister (Caroline Flint) during the Standing Committee deliberations (27.01.05- 03.02.05) From the introduction: Summary: principal concerns
Additional explanatory notes can be read (html) here Final Regulatory Assessment - Home office cost-benefit analysis of the new Bill
The Drugs Bill recieved its second reading on January the 18th in the House of Commons. In a lengthy and wide ranging debate many of Transform's concerns were raised. Highlights of the debate will be posted in the Parliament debates/quotes section of this site shortly. The full text of the debate can be viewed in Hansard here or in a more readable form (with space to add comments) here: The full text of the debate at TheyworkforYou.com (recommended)
A selection of quotes and exchanges from the session referencing Transform can be read here In the event the Bill passed through this Standing Committee with only one minor amendment, despite 39 being tabled. Many of the proposed amendments were tabled by the Conservatives and were used as an attempt to embarrass the Government or highlight failures. The Conservatives asserted that the Drugs Bill was not strong enough, calling for harsher sentences and other changes including the reclassification of cannabis as a class B drug, and the Inclusion of Khat as a Class A drug. Elements of the Transform briefing were used on several occassions by the Conservative Committee members to this end. The briefing was also used extensively by other members, notably Brian Iddon (Lab), and Alastair Carmichael (Lib Dem), to ask questions of the Minister, highlighting many of the obvious failings of the Bill raised by Transform. The Ministers responses were, in Transform's view, inadequate but occasionally revealing.
Drugs Bill Report Stage, and third Commons reading The amended Drugs Bill returned to the House of Commons (22.02.05) after the Standing Committee phase of its progress. This report stage is supposed to give MPs an opportunity to debate the ammended Bill. Insufficient time was given for this and much of the debate was used to criticise the failing of the parliamentary process and lack of debating time-rather than the contents of the Bill itself. Transform's briefing was quoted at the end of the debate by Crispin Blunt MP (conservative). full text of the the Report Stage Commons debate in Hansard full text of the Report Stage Commons debate at www.theyworkforyou.com (recommended) A private members Bill from Nigel Evans (Con) has been introduced relevant to the Drugs Bill. It seeks to include mandatory seven year sentences for third time drug dealing offendes, launch an independent commission on the harms associated with cannabis use and impose custodial sentences for dealing drugs to minors. The Bill was debated in the Commons on 25.02.05. full text of the Private Members Bill debate in Hansard Comments by Conservative leader Miichael Howard suggest that this is primarily an opportunity to make some political capital at election-time by implying that the Government is 'soft on drugs' (see the Transform briefing intro and policies of political parties page for more discussion): "I believe that anyone convicted for a third time of dealing hard drugs should receive an automatic seven-year minimum sentence. Drugs are wrong - and if you deal in them there will be a heavy price to pay. In recent years, that clear message has become shrouded in political correctness" (see Guardian Story here for more)
Drugs Bill Early Day Motion for more information on Early Day Motions visit the Transform EDM page
signitories (2) Flynn / Paul signitories (1) Tyler / Paul
Drugs Bill criticised by Joint Parliamentary Human Rights Committee A strongly critical report on the Drugs Bill has been produced by the Joint Parliamentary Human Rights Committee. The report was ordered by both Houses of Parliament to be printed on Feb 9th 2005 and appears in the Committee's seventh report for the 2004-2005 session dated Feb 22nd 2005. The full text of the report can be read here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200405/jtselect/jtrights/47/4702.htm The main points raised by the report are:
Whilst we are pleased that the Joint Human Rights Committee have reiterated some of the human rights concerns raised by the Transform Drugs Bill briefing (and other NGOs including Release) it seems bizarre that this report was published only after substantial Commons debate on the Bill and more specifically after the Standing Committee deliberations on the Bill during which precisely these questions were considered in some detail. This is by no means the fault of the Committee who had a huge volume of legislation to respond to during an unusually narrow time window. Whilst the Human Rights Committee are only required to produce the report on the Bill before the second reading of the Bill in the Lords (April 4th 2005) it is certainly very convenient for the Government that this legal scrutiny only emerged after the Bill had been debated and voted on in the Commons.
After the Common's Standing Committee phase of a Bill's passage through Parliament, it returns to the Chamber to for the report stage and third reading after which it is voted on. It is the referred to the House of Lords where it will be debated. If the Lords accept the Bill unamended it returns to the Commons to become an Act. The provisions of the Act do not automatically become law. Some are subject to commencement orders which are usually set a period in the future to allow preparation by the relevant departments and agencies and also to allow the final drafting of the the Statutory Instruments that define how the new laws will be applied in practice. If the Lords demand amendments to the Bill it has to return to the House of Commons where these amendments are considered and then either accepted - in which case the Bill, in amended form, proceeds to its third reading, or rejected, in which case the Bill then bounces back and forth between the two houses until agreement is reached. If the Bill does not make it through this process before a General Election it has to be re-intoduced in the following parliamentary session, and begin the entire process again (Bills can carry over between sessions but not between Governments). Assuming that the Bill is not enacted before the expected May 2005 election it will have to be reintroduced in the Autumn, and will still be in competition with many other bills battling for time in the busy legislative calandar. An Early Day Motion tabled by Paul Flynn MP calls for the Lords to carry out 'wholesale revision of the Bill'. LATEST: 07.04.05: (see above for more details) The Lords second reading debate on the Drugs bill took place on Monday April the 4th read the full Hansard text of the debate here The Lords committee stage and third reading debate took place on Wednesday April the 6th read the full Hansard text of the debate here
There has been relatively little media coverage of the Bill. It was announced in the Queens speech along with 29 other Bills and the Commons debate and Standing Committee deliberations have not attracted much interest yet. Q&A: The Drugs Bill, Guardian Online, Nov 26, 2004 (Transform Linked) The Bigger Picture on the Drugs Bill,
By Maria Ahmed, Community Care, Jan 17, 2005 (Transform quoted) Charity says drugs policy undermines Police morale Police Review March 4 2005 (story about Transform's response to the Drugs Bill) Group slams Magic Mushroom ban Police review March 4 2005 (second story about Transform's response to the Drugs Bill). This news item was also mentioned in the Times (March 8 2005) Public Agenda supplement review of the proffessional media.
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